St. George’s Hospital faces £91m axe

In yet another assault on NHS services, St. George’s Hospital must save an astounding £91m within two years.

The southwest London hospital – which provides vital services to a wide community, including maternity and accident and emergency, as well more specialised care, such as trauma, cancer care and neurology – must shave £45.2m from its budget by the end of this fiscal year. An additional £45.8m will be cut the following year.

Although a St. George’s Hospital spokesperson said the cuts would involve neither job losses nor measures that would have an “adverse impact on patients,” the planned cuts for this year will be £10.2m from women’s and children’s services, £11.1m from medicine and cardiovascular, and £10m from surgery, neuroscience and theatres.

“If these vast amounts of cuts won’t lead to job losses, then what will they lead to?  – this is a question that needs to be asked,” said Unite health officer Rose Keeping.

“Unite will seek to fight for jobs as much as possible. But if there are to be cuts in personnel, then there is no doubt this will adversely impact patient care,” Keeping added.

Keeping noted that even when cuts do not involve outright job losses, they usually involve a mix of measures that can harm patients and staff, including downgrading pay grades and reconfiguring services.

“This isn’t just happening at St. George’s. The cuts are happening everywhere in southwest London and the rest England,” she said.

For a more detailed breakdown of NHS cutbacks in the southwest London area, see the South West London Collaborative Commissioning strategic draft plan here.

Angry about NHS cuts? Join Unite in the People’s March for the NHS, which started in Jarrow and ends in London on September 6.